


la douleur exquise

by bcrtiebctts



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Insecurity, M/M, One-Sided Crush, Unrequited Love, bisexual!Mike, bisexual!max, gay!will, i haven’t written anything in about a year so, or is it???, pan!el, steve harrington being a brotherly figure for max, the s3 trailer said elmax rights!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-01-07 01:21:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18400247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bcrtiebctts/pseuds/bcrtiebctts
Summary: “you’re not falling in love with this girl, are you?”—or the one where max falls for a girl who’s very much in love with mike wheeler.





	la douleur exquise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s a lot of things Max Mayfield hadn’t expected upon her arrival at Hawkins. She didn’t expect to find herself battling a monster from another dimension with her new friends and she definitely didn’t expect to meet a girl who could snap her neck without even flinching. Most of all, she didn’t expect said girl to make her cheeks warm or her belly fill with butterflies.

 

**_Snowball 1984_ **

There’s a lot of things Max Mayfield hadn’t expected upon her arrival at Hawkins. She didn’t expect to find herself battling a monster from another dimension with her new friends and she  _definitely_ didn’t expect to meet a girl who could snap her neck without even flinching. Most of all, she didn’t expect said girl to make her cheeks warm or her belly fill with butterflies

 

—

_Just hours after Eleven had closed the gate and everyone had decided to spend the night at the Byers’, she found herself unable to sleep. Apparently she hadn’t been the only one._

_Max gently sat down on the floor in front of the brunette, who had curled into herself on the couch. Her eyes carried bags beneath them, and seemed as if they were ready to close at any minute if it weren’t for the girl fighting it. Max reached forward and placed her hand softly on Eleven’s leg._

_”El-Eleven?” She looked up, apparently noticing her for the first time. Once she realized it was just Max, her eyes hardened and she moved her body further away._

_”Yes?”_

_The redhead pretended it didn’t hurt and swallowed, “Are you okay? Everyone else is asleep.”_

_It was a stupid question really. Obviously she wasn’t okay, none of them were okay. Eleven scrunched her eyebrows in confusion and annoyance, “You’re not.”_

_That was fair. But in Max’s defense, she hadn’t for awhile now, “Yeah, yeah I guess that’s true. I know you’re not my biggest fan but...I really think you should really get some sleep, Mike would agree.”_

_At the mention of Mike, Eleven softened. The brunette found herself looking around the room until she found the boy sleeping on the floor near the hallway, close to Will’s room. Max ignored the weird feeling in her chest._

_”You...you like Mike.”_

_Max laughed, “What?”_

_Eleven looked back at Max, more confident about her statement, “I saw you. At the school. You were smiling, he was smiling.”_

_”Oh, no! Me and Wheeler? No way, ew!” Max shook her head in disgust. Then she realized why the girl had been so cold towards her, “You thought I liked him? Is that why you don’t like me around?”_

_The bruennete looked down, confirming the answer Max was looking for, “Stupid. I’m sorry.”_

_”Hey, hey, it’s okay. You’re not stupid,” Max reassured her before adding, “but you are tired, you should get some rest.”_

_The redhead leaned over and grabbed the blanket next to her, handing it to Eleven. She accepted it and glanced at Max before she said, “You too.”_

_Max smiled softly, stood up, and said, “Me too,” before crawling back into her sleeping bag next to Lucas._

_She didn’t fall asleep until she heard Eleven’s soft snores fill the room. Finally, Max closed her eyes, brown eyes and pink lips still on her mind as she drifted off, sleeping for the first time since she moved into this town._

 

_—_

Max had assumed not seeing Eleven for a little over a month would have allowed her stranger feelings to disappear. She couldn’t have been more wrong. She could feel her heart in her throat when she glanced over Lucas’ shoulder—the two were in the middle of a slow dance—and she noticed Eleven walking into the gym. 

Eleven had a clip in her curly brown locks, some lip gloss that made her lips look even pinker, blue eyeshadow, and a dress that looked so pretty on her it made Max feel all warm and fuzzy. In that moment, Max realized two things; Eleven was simply beautiful and she was walking towards Mike _._

She snapped out of her thoughts and tried to focus on not stepping on Lucas. Max liked Lucas, he was sweet, smart, and easy to talk to. He also had a smile that made Max a little weak in the knees, not that she’d ever say so.  

She liked boys. Boys were great, well sometimes. Sure, she’d always preferred holding Emily’s, a friend from California, hand way more than any of the boys in her class. And yeah she often found herself staring at girls and wondering if their lips were as soft as they looked, but that was just a thing everyone did. Right? It totally didn’t mean anything.

She was spiraling into another set of thoughts and did her best to ignore them. Max set a determined look on her face and closed her eyes as she leaned in, softly pressing her lips against Lucas’. She could feel her cheeks warming before she pulled away, smiling at the look of shock and awe on his face. Max looked down happily and buried her head into his shoulder as they swayed to the music, feeling content. 

Max pretended it didn’t bother her when she saw Mike leaning in to Eleven. She also pretended she didn’t see Will excusing himself from the cute girl he was dancing with before running out of the gym. 

Max was really good at pretending a lot of things.

—

About half an hour later, Max found herself sitting down at a table eating cookies shaped like snowflakes and Christmas trees while Lucas had ran off to the bathroom. As she finished eating one and reached into her plate to grab another, she noticed Will pulling out a chair and taking a seat next to her. 

His eyes were a bit puffy and his shoulders seemed to sag. Max didn’t like that. She nudged his shoulder and smiled, “Do you want a cookie?”

Will glanced down at her hand, which was holding out a tree shaped cookie. A hint of a smile formed on his lips and he said, “Weren’t you going to eat it?”

”I’m stuffed, I’ve had like eight of these,” she lied. She’d only had one.

But that seemed to convince Will, he shrugged and accepted the cookie, “Thank you...Mad Max.”

Max grinned at him and said, “Anytime, Will the Wise.” 

He chuckled softly and took a bite out of the tree shaped cookie, some of the sprinkles falling off and landing on his lap. He looked over to the dance floor and saw Mike and Eleven still slow dancing, he suddenly lost his appetite. Max saw the longing in his eyes as he stared at Mike, she understood.

She reached over and held onto Will’s hand, hoping it conveyed what she couldn’t say out loud, not in Hawkins, not now, which was  _I understand, I’m here for you. You’re going to be okay._

Will squeezed her hand and looked at her, his eyes screaming in gratitude. His shoulders sagged a little less after this.

Lucas returned back from the restroom and Will pulled his hand away from Max. As Lucas began to greet the two, the instrumental of “Out of Touch” began to play. Max beamed and stood up, pulling the two boys along, “There’s no way we’re missing out on dancing to this song!” 

Lucas smiled fondly at Max as she began to dance, soon encouraging Will and himself to do the same. Dustin has joined them shortly after, his hair still in perfect condition. Max’s red hair was definitely messy now but she couldn’t bring herself to care, not when she could see that Will was feeling better and definitely not when she caught Eleven’s gaze and smile as she began to dance, too.

Max started to believe that maybe everything was going to be okay.

 

—

 

_**December 31st, 1984** _

 

1984 was ending in ten minutes and Max was sitting on bed, trying to tape her skateboard back together again. No amount of duck tape could keep it back together for more than a day or two after Billy had broken it in half the previous month. Lucas had invited her over to his house, which was where the party always met up to ring in the New Year. But of course, her mom and Neil strongly disagreed with her spending the night with a group of boys, especially Lucas.

Max thought their reasoning and voiced just as much, which resulted in Neil sending her to the room to spend the final moments of the year by herself. Billy had left to some party in Loch Nora with a pretty blonde girl and probably wouldn’t be home until tomorrow morning. Max already knew Neil would have a thing or two to say about that.

Frustrated, Max threw her board beside her bead and laid back. She wondered what the party was doing right now, probably getting the fireworks ready for midnight. Max glanced down at the yellow watch on her wrist, 11:55.

Suddenly a low static filled her room, ending rather abruptly. Max smiled and rolled over, pulling her walkie talkie out of her nightstand. Lucas had gotten it for her for Christmas, claiming every party member needed it in case of any kind of emergency. Holding onto the button, Max asked, “What’s the emergency, Stalker? Did one of you hurt yourselves setting up the fireworks?”

“Max?”

Max definitely didn’t almost drop her walkie talkie in her face, _she_ _didn’t_. Composing herself, she answered, “Yeah, yeah, it’s me. Is-Is this-“

“Jane. It’s _Jane_.”

Max remembered the conversation Hopper had with them the morning after the gate closed, they had to call her Jane when making any sort of communication that could be heard by others and eventually when she started school as well.

”Right, Jane. Are you okay?”

It was quiet for a moment, then Max heard Jane answer very low, “I can’t sleep. They’re making too much noise.”

She could faintly hear fireworks going off from two houses down from her own, _early_ _birds_. Max pulled the device closer to her mouth and then she said, “They’re pretty annoying right?” She smiled as she heard a small giggle escape Jane’s mouth.

”Mouthbreathers.”

Max beamed and laughed, “Yeah, mouthbreathers for sure.”

She could hear the smile in Jane’s voice as she said, “Are you waiting for twelve-zero-zero?”

Sighing, Max rolled over until she was laying on her back and played with her red locks as she repsonded, “I guess. A new year is a big deal apparently.”

Silence filled the air again until Jane asked, “Why?”

Max let go of the piece of hair she was playing with, allowing it to fall on her face, “It’s basically like a fresh start, a new year lets you set goals.”

”Goals?”

Max considered her words before answering, “It’s something you want for yourself. Or something you want to do.”

“I want to see you. That’s my goal,” Jane said.

If Max thought her heart was beating fast when she saw Jane at the Snowball, it was nothing compared to how it was beating at this moment, “You do?”

Jane answered as if it was something she’d thought about before, “Yes, you’re my friend, Max.”

Max smiled to herself and raised the walkie talkie to respond, the sound of fireworks cutting her off. She spared a glance at her watch, 12:00. Confidently, Max said, “I want to see you, too. Happy New Year, Jane. Try to sleep now, okay?”

”Okay. Happy New Year, Max.”

The redhead shut off her walkie talkie and placed it back into her nightstand. She stared up at the ceiling until her eyelids grew heavy, Jane still very much on her mind. 

 


End file.
